Preview — Postsingular
by Rudy Rucker

Postsingular

It all begins next year in California. A maladjusted computer industry billionaire and a somewhat crazy US President initiate a radicaltransformation of the world through sentient nanotechnology; sort of the equivalent of biological artificial intelligence. At first they succeed, but their plans are reversed by Chu, an autistic boy. The next time it isn't so easy to stop tIt all begins next year in California. A maladjusted computer industry billionaire and a somewhat crazy US President initiate a radical transformation of the world through sentient nanotechnology; sort of the equivalent of biological artificial intelligence. At first they succeed, but their plans are reversed by Chu, an autistic boy. The next time it isn't so easy to stop them.

Most of the story takes place in a world after a heretofore unimaginable transformation, where all the things look the same but all the people are different (they're able to read each others' minds, for starters). Travel to and from other nearby worlds in the quantum universe is possible, so now our world is visited by giant humanoids from another quantum universe, and some of them mean to tidy up the mess we've made. Or maybe just run things....more

Speculation about the future is often a problem of calibration. It’s difficult to dial in our predictions. Sometimes we are too optimistic, too expansive, allowing our imaginations to run away with the plot. Sometimes we are too cynical, too cautious, and end up failing to see what was so obvious in hindsight. Whatever the mode of the day, however, as a species we remain pretty bad at predicting the future. Where’s my flying car?

Indeed, how often do we see the future coming? Yet we insist on proSpeculation about the future is often a problem of calibration. It’s difficult to dial in our predictions. Sometimes we are too optimistic, too expansive, allowing our imaginations to run away with the plot. Sometimes we are too cynical, too cautious, and end up failing to see what was so obvious in hindsight. Whatever the mode of the day, however, as a species we remain pretty bad at predicting the future. Where’s my flying car?

Indeed, how often do we see the future coming? Yet we insist on prognosticating. No one is more obnoxious in this regard than the Singularity movement, which believes that we will eventually develop an artificial intelligence of high enough calibre that it will be able to begin improving itself exponentially. At that point, we can no longer predict the future in any meaningful way, because the AI will completely alter human existence. Or so the thinking goes.

As its name implies, Postsingular is Rudy Rucker’s attempt to peer beyond the veil of the Singularity. It’s not so much a straight-up meditation upon a possible postsingular society so much as a bizarre, metaphorical look at the implications of mastering quantum mechanics once and for all. This novel is weird. From the first chapter, with the antagonistic “nants” that threaten the Earth and humanity, Rucker establishes a vocabulary and atmosphere all his own. The next chapter brings in the “orphids”, nanomachines similar to but somewhat more benevolent than the nants. From there, Rucker draws the reader down an infinitely-long, ever narrowing rabbit hole.

The orphids blanket the world in a network of tiny quantum computers, connecting humanity like they’ve never been connected before. It’s fun to watch Rucker explore the implications of this development, from the destruction of privacy and traditional notions of economy and employment to the evolution of literature, entertainment, and reputation. One can watch anyone else by experiencing what the orphids on that person’s body are experiencing. It’s a creepy, voyeuristic consequence of using self-replicating machines to network the world.

It’s also worth noting that the creation of the orphidnet isn’t something initiated by governments or even any one organization. A company develops the orphids, but they get released by one man in a moment of rash optimism—and they change everything. In this respect, Rucker captures the often overlooked fact that critical change can come from the choices an individual makes. New technologies and services spring up from contributions of people who have very little power or influence in the more conventional sense—but because of their pervasive nature and usefulness, they hang on, grow, and soon become essential.

Postsingular runs into problems mostly because, despite all these fascinating ideas, its characters are thinner than the density of orphids in one square millimetre. From the laughably moustache-twirling Jeff Luty to the unsympathetic Ond Lundquist and the rather unimpressive Jayjay and Thuy, Rucker manages to create characters who have very little going for them. I wish I could say that I admired Thuy’s self-possession and determination—for she does possess them—but I was mostly annoyed by the way Rucker kept moving the goal post of the plot in a mistaken attempt at revelation. Foreshadowing was present but patchy at best.

I kept thinking I had figured out what was going on. But Postsingular runs into the problem that Charles Stross, another big name in the Singularity circle, has written about at some length (though I can’t quite find a link at the moment). Basically, when a writer extrapolates nanotechnology and mastery of quantum mechanics to the point where it is sufficiently advanced to be magic, they stop writing science fiction and have instead entered the realm of fantasy, albeit with futuristic trappings. Note that there is nothing wrong with this per se. But for addicts of so-called “hard” science fiction like myself, there is something so disappointing about being lured in by the promise of artificial intelligence only to discover a gooier, softer science fiction than one was expecting.

Postsingular is clever and creative and, yeah, quite original. Its writing isn’t great, though, and it suffers from an exhaustion of genre. Just as dystopia has oversaturated the young adult market, the Singularity’s shadow has dominated science fiction for some time now, nudging aside cyberpunk. Although the occasional writer can shine the occasional dim light on a new corner, most of what made the Singularity so fascinating and unique has already been explored (I just haven’t read it all yet!). I confess that I’m a little tapped out. And this book doesn’t do much to get me excited about our machine overlords again.

The author is a ex-drug addict, a Mondo 2000 alumnus, a professor of advanced mathematics, a key figure in the creation of cyberpunk (he preferred the term "Transrealist") a 2 to the 3rd (minus two) descendant of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a multi-PKD award winning novelist and completely obsessed with cuttlefish.

The first chapter should have warned me away. Half the dialogue amounted to:"Let me tell you what cool things this tech we've been working on together can do!""I know. Now let me tell you something else!""Isn't this fantastic that we can keep telling each other things we should both already know so we can bring the audience up to speed!"

This kind of obvious exposition is one of my pet peeves of bad writing, largely because it pushes the reader out of the story. The writing got better as the bookThe first chapter should have warned me away. Half the dialogue amounted to:"Let me tell you what cool things this tech we've been working on together can do!""I know. Now let me tell you something else!""Isn't this fantastic that we can keep telling each other things we should both already know so we can bring the audience up to speed!"

This kind of obvious exposition is one of my pet peeves of bad writing, largely because it pushes the reader out of the story. The writing got better as the book moved along, but not by much. It is rather flat throughout the entire novel. Rucker seems desperate to convince his readers that the science in his science fiction is plausible so he spends more time on that than on developing characters and giving them convincing emotions and motives. Unfortunately, his sacrifice of characters for tech gained him nothing because the more he tried to convince me that this tech was possible and could really happen some day, the more I was convinced it was completely impossible and he was just trying too hard. All this debating over the plausibility of his science repeatedly pushed me out of the story so I could never get lost in the book and just enjoy his characters and plot (which isn't bad and the reason I went with 2 stars rather than 1). If he had convinced me of the technology, it might have made this a three and a book worth reading as a thought piece despite its flaws as a novel, but he never did that and then in the end resorted to something that, in my opinion, amounted to magic, completely invalidating the one thing I thought he was most trying to do....more

This book took me months to read and I'm not sure whether that's a mark of acclaim or disparagement. This was quite the imaginative story, one that offered a very keen look at a world overrun with nanomachines capable of rewriting reality at the cellular level and the risks and benefits associated with the singularity (ask a physicist).

However, what took me so long to read this book was that Rucker was so focused on the wonders of the technology and the possibilities for it that the story itselfThis book took me months to read and I'm not sure whether that's a mark of acclaim or disparagement. This was quite the imaginative story, one that offered a very keen look at a world overrun with nanomachines capable of rewriting reality at the cellular level and the risks and benefits associated with the singularity (ask a physicist).

However, what took me so long to read this book was that Rucker was so focused on the wonders of the technology and the possibilities for it that the story itself lags behind and the characters seem shallow and one-dimensional. I never cared about the young and autistic Chu, I never wanted to know the results of Thuy and Jay-jay's on again/off again love affair because they weren't people. They were constructs used to move the setting along so that Rucker could expound on the next technological wonder that he'd thought up.

As a book about the exciting possibilities of nanotechnology, Rucker has succeeded admirably. As a story though, it leaves a lot to be desired....more

Gonzo sci-fi at its best. Quantum computing, networked consciousness, self-aware evolving artificial intelligence. It's easy enough to get through. But there are a few times when I feel a little too much of deus ex machina, and that the focus of the story is on the technology.

Good writing should always be about the characters, and at some point in "Act III", this book loses sight of the people and you find yourself distracted by how Rucker's technological universe works. That is, until you recaGonzo sci-fi at its best. Quantum computing, networked consciousness, self-aware evolving artificial intelligence. It's easy enough to get through. But there are a few times when I feel a little too much of deus ex machina, and that the focus of the story is on the technology.

Good writing should always be about the characters, and at some point in "Act III", this book loses sight of the people and you find yourself distracted by how Rucker's technological universe works. That is, until you recall Arthur C. Clarke's adage: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." So if you can suspend disbelief long enough to take parallel universes and quantum-entangled nanotechnology on faith, this is an entertaining story....more

At 1st this just seemed like reruns to me. The "nants", life-as-we-know-it-threatening nanotechnology intent on eating the Earth & its inhabitants & recreating them virtually in order to create a super-computer more in keeping w/ the nants's own self-organization, seemed like a rerun of Rucker's own The Hacker and the Ants (1994)review of Rudy Rucker's Postsingularby tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - January 26, 2015

At 1st this just seemed like reruns to me. The "nants", life-as-we-know-it-threatening nanotechnology intent on eating the Earth & its inhabitants & recreating them virtually in order to create a super-computer more in keeping w/ the nants's own self-organization, seemed like a rerun of Rucker's own The Hacker and the Ants (1994) from 13 yrs before in wch there were "ants" as the threat instead of "nants".

I'd 1st encountered the idea of technological insects in Stanislav Lem's great The Invincible (1967) when the idea struck me as highly original (but may not've been). Then there was Greg Bear's Blood Music (1985) in wch nanotechnology gets into humanity's bloodstream & dramatically changes human reality. THEN there was Greg Egan's Permutation City (1994) in wch people attain 'eternal life' by becoming code on an electronic chip. These 1st 3 bks all struck me as visionary. THEN, in June of 2000, Ghanesh & I interviewed writer Damien Broderick In Australia ( http://youtu.be/OhiGt9eJ9bw ) & he touched on his more hopeful imaginings for nanotechnology. THEN there came Michael Crichton's Prey (2002) wch featured nanotchenology as predator wch just struck me as derivative of Blood Music & not much more.

Finally, we get to Rucker's Postsingular (2007) wch is even later in the chronology &, therefore, not likely to provide much novelty. "By way of keeping people informed about the Nant Day progress, the celestial Martian nant-sphere put up a full map of Earth with the ported regions shaded in red. Although it might take months or years to chew the planet right down to the core, Earth's surface was going fast. Judging from the map, by evening most of it would be gone, Gaia's skin eaten away by micron-sized computer chips with wings." (p 32)

However, what makes Rucker's story a furtherance of the preceding is that the 2nd chapter runs thru the nanotechnology-threatens-life-as-we-know-it trope in short order: the drama happens & is curtailed & we move onto a different variation. As such, the 1st 2 chapters greatly condense the type of story that might've previously constituted an entire novel.

As such, as is so often the case w/ Rucker, I'm reminded of Philip K. Dick. I often say that Dick had so many ideas that his novels wd reach a spectacular (penultimate) climax halfway thru the bk: a climax that many writers wd be hard-pressed to come up w/ for their (ultimate) ending - & then Dick goes on to build to an even more fantastic actual ending. Rucker's 1st 2 chapters here somewhat compress that Dick strategy to a preface of sorts.

Moving on, the 1st chapter starts w/ some formative back-story in wch 2 boys make a rocket: "The rocket's sides were adorned with fanciful sheet metal fins and a narrow metal pipe that served as a launch lug." (p 14) I'm reminded of my own childhood when my neighbors made a mortar from a pipe That was used to launch CO2 canisters emptied of their gas & stuffed w/ match heads. The match heads wd be lit & the canister wd take off to wherever the pipe was pointed. &, uh, no, it wasn't safe. In Postsingular the boys time the launching of their rocket for when there's minimal likelihood of their hitting a passing jet:

""You can really see the jetliners on that blue map?" asked Carlos, his handsome face gilded by the setting sun.

""You bet. Good thing, too. We'll squirt our rocket when there's a gap in the traffic. Like a bum scuttling across a freeway."" - p 16

My friend Doug Retzler, who in the early to mid 1980s was making Sky Art, did a piece at a public arts festival in BalTimOre called the "Ad Hoc Fiasco" in wch he made a large painting of clouds on cheesecloth & had it held aloft by helium-filled weather balloons - floating above the festival & tethered to the ground to prevent the painting from floating away.

The tethering failed & the painting did venture upward. Given that it was something like 30 ft wide, Doug was seriously worried that it wd get in the path of a passing aircraft & foul its props or jets & cause a crash. He phoned the FAA & explained the situation to them & they assured him that the likelihood of that was very slim indeed. As far as I know we never found out where the cloud painting landed. Imagine the surprise of anyone who might've witnessed its coming back to ground: The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

The nants are defined: they're "a line of of bio-mimetic self-reproducing nanomachines" (p 20) & their risk is speculated on: "The nant swarms develop their own Wolfram-irreducible emergent hive-mind behaviors. We'll never really control the nants". (p 21)

But, of course, the nants are let loose or where wd the drama be?: "["]But Dibbs's advisers like it. We'll save energy, and the economy can run right around the clock. And, get this, Olliburton, the vice president's old company—they're planning to sell ads."" (p 24) Hopefully, this is transparent political satire to Americans alive at the time of the release of this novel but that might not be the case even 20 yrs from now. Dibbs is obviously Bush, Olliburton is clearly Haliburton & the vice-president is none other than Dick Cheney. &, yes, Cheney was the Chairman and CEO of Halliburton Company from 1995 to 2000 before becoming VP of the USA.

& for those of you who still don't get the satire here: "former Vice President Dick Cheney took a shot at Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). But Paul is not likely to be fazed by criticism from Cheney, for several years ago the Kentucky senator was pushing the conspiratorial notion that the former VP exploited the horrific 9/11 attacks to lead the nation into war in Iraq in order to benefit Halliburton, the enormous military contractor where Cheney had once been CEO." ( http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2... ) In other words, where Haliburton tromps, ethics are left-behind (even more than kuffar during the Rapture) & greed isn't even bothered to be leashed in its ravenous plunge forward to rend & tear - & so it is w/ Olliburton in Postsingular.

Rucker's parody of Bush imagines the worst: "President Dick Dibbs—now eligible for the third and fourth term thanks to a life-extending DNA modification that made him legally a different person—issued periodic statements to the effect that the nant-sphere computer was soon coming online." (p 26) Fortunately for the reader who wants at least the mild vicarious pleasure of seeing Bush come to a bad end as punishment for his crimes, Dibbs gets his come-uppance.

""And you're saying your string of symbols can stop the nants?" asked Nektar doubtfully. "Like a magic spell?"" (p 30) This idea of sequences of symbols as magic spells was also in Rucker's The Hacker and the Ants. Some refer to mathematics as 'the language of nature' & think that the more closely one describes natural processes in this language the more ability one will have to move from pure math to applied math: ie: to control the processes described. As such, the similarity to ceremonial magik, in wch esoteric incantations are inscribed & chanted are thought to channel specific occult forces, is obvious.

""I've written a nant-virus. You might call it a Trojan flea." He chuckled grimly. If I can just get this code into some of the nants, they'll spread it to all of the others—it's written in such a way that they'll think it's a nant-designed security patch."" - p 30

These days, computer viruses are anathema to just about everybody - but I remember when my friends & fellow neoists Boris Wanowitch & Barnoz were the editors of Cacanada's 1st Macintosh computer magazine, MacMag, in the early 1980s & they sent out a virus that caused a smiley-face (or some such) to appear on computer desktops that had a msg w/ it to the effect of "Have a Nice Day - from MacMag". Yeah, they got into alotof trouble for that since they infected the products of at least one major software designer but the intention was fairly benign.

One of the main characters is "Chu", an autistic child w/ an interest in computers. At one time he might've been called an "idiot savant". These days that's probably 'politically incorrect'.

"Ond gave his son more food, then paused, thinking. He laid his sheaf of papers down beside Chu, thirty pages covered with line after line of hexadecimal code blocks: 02A1B59F, 9812D007, 70FFDEF6, like that.

""Read the code, he told Chu. See if you can memorize it. These pages are yours now."" - p 32

I'm reminded of Crispin Hellion Glover's movie What is it? featuring a cast of actors w/ Down syndrome. If I remember correctly, when Glover introduced the movie at a screening of it that I witnessed he explained that people w/ Down syndrome are very gentle. I'm also reminded of a friend who was temporarily paralyzed. During this time she cd sense when people entered the rm by the increase of temperature from their bodies. The point being that there's always the possibility that a deficiency in one area may be partially compensated for by a strength in another.

& here I am still in the 2nd chapter, barely getting started - this prefatory bit is fast-moving: ""The Trojan fleas just hatched!" shouted Ond. "Yes I saw a glitch. The nants are running backwards. Reversible computation. Look up at the sky. the scrolls are spiraling inward now instead of out. I knew it would work." Ond was whooping and laughing as he talked. "Each of the nants preserves a memory of every single thing it's done. And my Trojan fleas are making them run it all backwards."" (p 36) The disaster happens 1st & the rest of the novel explores a slower approach that attempts to produce the good results w/o the bad.

& then there're always those referential touches that I'm so fond of: "Jill and Craigor's home was a long cabin atop a flat live-aboard scow called the Merz Boat." (p 37) People familiar w/ 20th century art history will most likely recognize the reference immediately. Rucker goes on to explain: "He'd renamed the boat in honor of one of his personal heroes, the Dadaist artist Kurt Schwitters, who'd famously turned his house into an assemblage called the Merzbau. Merz was Schwitters's made-up word meaning, according to Craigor, "gnarly stuff that I can get for free."" (p 38) Well, being the persnickety nitpicker that I sometimes am, I quote from the bklt that comes w/ my 3rd LP, "Mechanically Repetitive / ReRecorded Records RECORD" regarding the etymology of the Japanese noise musician Merzbow's name:

""Extracted from the word Commerzbank, Merz came into view like a nova in an unknown sky in the shape of a picture nailed and stuck together, held in place with paste and crossed by wires. From his newspaper collages he transferred the trademark to his little periodical Merz, and finally to himself"

""Kurt Schwitters, of Hanover, living amongst the remnants of a military society of the lower middle class, in a town in which Hamann, the sexual murderer, lived and wrought nor far from the super-father Hindenburg - this Kurt Schwitters discovered the symbolic meaning of his movement in a syllable of the "KomMERZbank", on a neatly painted sign-board not far from his home, where he was leading a normal existence with his wife and child. Since that monumental event, which befell him one day as he was walking about town, he called his art "MERZ-art"."

"As you can probably understand now, "Merzbow" is phonetically the same as "Merzbau" from which it's derived. "Merz" is from "Kommerz" (or Commerce - as it would be in English) & "Bau" means something like "structure". A strict/literal translation into English from the original GERMAN (not Japanese) is something like "wares-structure" - not "erotic misery"! However, a too literal translation misses the point. Schwitters' intention was to render the military-industrial complex (represented by the CommerceBank) into a nonsensical fragment."

[..]

"["]He was referring to yet another column, whose title, Kathedrale des erotischen Elends (Cathedral of Erotic Misery), has often been applied" [..] "to the Merzbau as a whole.["]"

ANYWAY, the boat's name might even be more appropriate than Rucker realized insofar as there's commerce & a fair amt of erotic misery going on on it. As an aside, "Schwitters' Hannover and Norway constructions were destroyed respectively in an Allied bombing raid and a fire." ( http://www.artsprite.com/resume/javas... )

"Craigor was a kind of fisherman as well; that is, he earned money by trapping iridescent Pharaoh cuttlefish, an invasive species native to the Mergui Archipelago of Burma and now flourishing in the climate-heated waters of the San Francisco Bay. The chunky three-kilogram cuttlefish brought in a good price apiece from AmphiVision, Inc., a San Francisco company that used organic rhodopsin from cuttlefish chromatophores to dope the special video-displaying contact lenses known as web-eyes." - p 39

Rucker also makes reference to the use of cuttlefish-generated materials for growing bldgs or such-like in his TedX talk he presented in Brussels in 2011 here: http://youtu.be/ifddXYCPCYU .

"Pretty soon he noticed something interesting about the cuttlefish. Every so often, one of them would totally disappear.

"Chu wondered how this could be. One of the mushroom AIs obligingly did a quick search of all the science papers in the world and found that there's a theory that there's another world parallel to ours, less than a decillionth of a meter away, and that objects can quantum-tunnel back and forth between the worlds, thus seeming to disappear or, on the other hand emerge from nothing. the paper called the worlds "branes," like in "membranes."" - pp 65-66

Now one thing that I love about science fiction is that if something like that's mentioned it's quite possible that there's actually a theory somewhere along these lines - &, of course, that's the case here: "The central idea is that the visible, four-dimensional universe is restricted to a brane inside a higher-dimensional space, called the "bulk" (also known as "hyperspace"). If the additional dimensions are compact, then the observed universe contains the extra dimensions, and then no reference to the bulk is appropriate. In the bulk model, at least some of the extra dimensions are extensive (possibly infinite), and other branes may be moving through this bulk. Interactions with the bulk, and possibly with other branes, can influence our brane and thus introduce effects not seen in more standard cosmological models." ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brane_co... ) Gotta love it.

"As for those luminous humanoid beings—the AIs now reported that these were so-called angels from a parallel sheet of reality that had recently been dubbed the Hibrane. the best current models indicated the higher-space distance to the Hibrane must be about a thirtieth of a vatometer, that is, 0.03 decillionts of a meter. Due to the Randall-de Sitter interbrane warp factor, Hibraners ar this remove would be scaled six times larger than regular humans and would move six times slower." - p 74

&, yes, even that has a basis in scientific research. EG: there's a paper in the Cornell University Library called "Embedding of two de-Sitter branes in a generalized Randall Sundrum scenario" by Rodrigo Aros & Milko Estrada (Submitted on 4 Dec 2012) that has the following abstract: "In this work it is studied a generalization of Randall Sundrum model. It is obtained new behaviors of {\it warp factor}, constraints in that the strong brane has tension of positive sign and, new relations between the coupling constants, and between the Higgs and Planck masses." ( http://arxiv.org/abs/1212.0811 ) One thing I like about Rucker's work is the way he explains fanciful mythology, angels, eg, by using contemporary General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (or ideas from other scientific arenas) - even if he is playing fast & loose w/ them.

One of these 'angels' "messaged that his name was Azaroth; he said he was working as an interbrane cuttlefisherman." (p 81) In C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia:

"Azaroth was a minor goddess of the Calormene Religion. The Calormene religion was a polytheistic one, worshipping many gods; Tash and Zardeenah were two others. In the legendary hierarchy of Calormene gods and goddesses, Azaroth was considered below Tash (the highest of Calormene gods) but above Zardeenah, the goddess of night and of unmarried maidens. Azaroth commanded more respect and fear than Zardeenah, though her exact position and responsibilities is not clearly known."

[..]

"C.S. Lewis never defined whether Azaroth was a god, or a goddess. In Paul F. Ford's book, entitled Companion to Narnia, Revised Edition: A Complete Guide to the Magical World of C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, Azaroth is assumed to be female, as here." - http://narnia.wikia.com/wiki/Azaroth

According to p 171 in Postsingular the character Azaroth was named by his father "after a Babylonian demon." (p 171) Presumably, that's the origin Rucker was working from. Still, it's interesting to me that Azaroth is also a character in bks by the Christian fantasy writer Lewis. That fits nicely w/ Rucker's casting of Azaroth as an "angel" (or "Hibraner").

Sometimes things 'ring a bell' but I can't quite place them: "Nektar's mother, Karen Lundquist, had given the family's savings to a TV evangelist" (pp 70-71) Is "Karen Lundquist" from another Rucker novel? Not as far as I cd tell from a superficial online search. From somebody else's novel. Cdn't find any online reference. Still, something bugs me about it.. - like someday I'll be rereading (unlikely) some SF & I'll encounter the name & then I won't remember that I read it here too.

Clearly, Rucker is a computer geek - but he's also a guy who recognizes the healthiness of getting away from computers too. Here's an excerpt from the computer geek side: ""The orphidnet is a locative planetary brain," he told Jil. "My possessions are embodied thoughts."" (p 82) - but at the same time, there's ahint of the non-computer geek too in the last sentence: ""My possessions are embodied thoughts."" resonates w/ the Hylozoic - a concept I learned about thru checking out the TedX YouTube talk.

Hylozoism is "in philosophy, any system that views all matter as alive, either in itself or by participation in the operation of a world soul or some similar principle. Hylozoism is logically distinct both from early forms of animism, which personify nature, and from panpsychism, which attributes some form of consciousness or sensation to all matter." ( http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t... )

It is difficult to write a review of such a work of unremarkableness. The story is forgettable, the writing unsalted, unbuttered grits, and the science is at best that warped nonsense promulgated by the modern media.Given the credentials of the author, disappointing. He can do better.

It's not often that I abandon a book, but this one I just couldn't finish. (I might have forced myself to read a few more pages, but then the new Iain Banks book downloaded to the Kindle, so that was the end of that.) The science part of the sci-fi just felt unbelievable to me. Now, I can suspend my belief as much as the next man, unless the next man is a politician. But, it just didn't feel like it made any sense. I like sci-fi where the ideas are followed logically and the author creates interIt's not often that I abandon a book, but this one I just couldn't finish. (I might have forced myself to read a few more pages, but then the new Iain Banks book downloaded to the Kindle, so that was the end of that.) The science part of the sci-fi just felt unbelievable to me. Now, I can suspend my belief as much as the next man, unless the next man is a politician. But, it just didn't feel like it made any sense. I like sci-fi where the ideas are followed logically and the author creates interesting situations out of them. Or at least creates big anti-matter explosions. The ideas in this book seemed tired, their consequences either unexplored or unexplicable. As for the fiction part of the sci-fi, this book felt like a total failure. More than anything, the characters just didn't work - they felt like automata proceeding on their own (mostly stupid) paths with little thought or reaction to anyone or anything else. They have a penchant for making up weird names for things. Why? I don't know. Maybe the idea was that they were all on massive doses of valium - this would explain why they essentially just continued on with what they were doing even as the entire world was permanently changed. (OK, most of them kind of whined about it, but if I want to hear people whining I can watch the news.)

So, that's that - no more of this book for me. I'll go continue reading Surface Detail - three chapters in and already two grisly murders and the destruction of several thousand spacecraft with requisite antimatter explosions (OK, technically the latter was just a simulation, but it was pretty cool anyway - did I mention the antimatter explosions?)....more

CindyIs that a cephalopod coming out of a black hole?
Oct 10, 2010 07:14PM

CindyWell that take-down was fun to read! When a book goes as bad as this one did for you, it's cathartic getting it out. I'll still give it a try at someWell that take-down was fun to read! When a book goes as bad as this one did for you, it's cathartic getting it out. I'll still give it a try at some point though...

+1 for: "Now, I can suspend my belief as much as the next man, unless the next man is a politician."...more
Oct 20, 2010 05:43PM

SueHa! "Now, I can suspend my belief as much as the next man, unless the next man is a politician." Love it!
Nov 15, 2011 10:03AM

Rudy Rucker starts a reported trilogy with a book about nanotechnology remaking the world, and the consciousness of the world's inhabitants right along with it.

In fact, the world is remade at least twice in the book, first in a freak experiment, and then in a phreakier one. The law of unintended consequences is the law of the land in Rucker's re-re-imagined Earth, where a global, semi-organic network of sentient helper tech grants everyone a form of omniscience, and taps into other dimensions.Rudy Rucker starts a reported trilogy with a book about nanotechnology remaking the world, and the consciousness of the world's inhabitants right along with it.

In fact, the world is remade at least twice in the book, first in a freak experiment, and then in a phreakier one. The law of unintended consequences is the law of the land in Rucker's re-re-imagined Earth, where a global, semi-organic network of sentient helper tech grants everyone a form of omniscience, and taps into other dimensions.

True to human nature, these newfound abilities and insights lead to nothing so much as more of the same. Like Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan comic series, Rucker's novel is formulated on the thesis that technological improvements lead not necessarily to an improved society, but to one in which the same faults and foibles, lusts and needs, are magnified. It's told with constant humor, endless goofy neologisms, and Rucker's trademark sense of calm despite the waves of societal and technological change....more

The book clearly seem divided in 'short stories' somehow, with a main new idea in each.What I like at first are some of the highly imaginative ideas 'strech' to a future/possible world.

The two first section are excellent, mostly because there are highly imaginative ideas/stretch put into a plausible world.

Then for the middle of the books is just 'good' keeping the main characters alive and the story evolving with action, power, high-tech scifi and plain old guns and explosions. (Although it kindThe book clearly seem divided in 'short stories' somehow, with a main new idea in each.What I like at first are some of the highly imaginative ideas 'strech' to a future/possible world.

The two first section are excellent, mostly because there are highly imaginative ideas/stretch put into a plausible world.

Then for the middle of the books is just 'good' keeping the main characters alive and the story evolving with action, power, high-tech scifi and plain old guns and explosions. (Although it kind of make more sense by the end of the book.)

however, I am glad I kept reading for by the end of the book, the techno-babble and mysticism kind of merge in a great finish, kinda explanation.

And my favorite passage is a quick few pages about a '50 years live of a charater in a full virtual world' and how the world as such evolve/change during this time... to... not going to spoil here.

If it wasn't for the middle part of the books than seem too long, I would have ranked the book higher.

Damn, but this is a weird book. In one of the first chapters, a fairly typical weird scientist character uses sentient nano-machines to deconstruct the planet Mars, turning it into a giant super-computer shaped like a Dyson sphere. As a result, the entire sky-view of Earth is now in effect the inside of the sphere. One of the scenes in this book that positively gave me the creeps was a description of that sphere being used as a gigantic Imax screen for political propaganda. Imagine looking up toDamn, but this is a weird book. In one of the first chapters, a fairly typical weird scientist character uses sentient nano-machines to deconstruct the planet Mars, turning it into a giant super-computer shaped like a Dyson sphere. As a result, the entire sky-view of Earth is now in effect the inside of the sphere. One of the scenes in this book that positively gave me the creeps was a description of that sphere being used as a gigantic Imax screen for political propaganda. Imagine looking up to the sky and seeing an enormous politician projected there. The stuff nightmares are made of...This book is filled with absolutely wonky post-singularity technology. In the same chapter mentioned above, the sentient nano-machines also decide to turn Earth into computronium, using the resulting computing power to generate a virtual version of Earth (yep: Vearth) where everyone can live forever as a virtual simulation. Thankfully, yet another nutty scientist's autistic son has managed to memorize thousands of lines of code that basically throw those nano-bots in reverse, so when the nano-beasties virtualize him, it sets off a chain reaction that negates the whole process and out pops good old Earth again. The kid's nutty scientist dad then develops another variant of sentient nano-beasties that cover everything and everyone on Earth and effectively turn everyone more or less omniscient and telepathic. All of this happens in the first 2 or 3 chapters. It gets weirder after this --- characters traveling to different dimensions and so on --- but I think you get the idea.In the end, I gave the book just 2 stars. For one, I thought that some of the characters' reactions to all this post-singularity weirdness was way too casual. Most ordinary mortals would have gone into catatonic shock. Even worse, I found the prose style enormously annoying. The book is basically written in the same choppy tone as your average YA novel. The contrast between this style and the subject matter created so much dissonance that I just couldn't focus on the story and ended up skip-reading through the last 50 pages or so. There's a lot of good stuff in this book, and some really interesting characters and concepts, but in the end I couldn't help thinking that a more skilled writer could have done so much more with all those nifty ideas. ...more

I possibly came into this one with overly high hopes. Rudy Rucker is often mentioned as one of the key authors writing about the Singularity, a concept I find endlessly fascinating. I think I was kind of expecting another Accelerando, but this wasn't up to that level.

Postsingular tells the tale of a few folks who live through a very simplistic Singularity, and how they cope with the new always-networked world populated by artificial intelligences and strange beings from a parallel universe (specI possibly came into this one with overly high hopes. Rudy Rucker is often mentioned as one of the key authors writing about the Singularity, a concept I find endlessly fascinating. I think I was kind of expecting another Accelerando, but this wasn't up to that level.

Postsingular tells the tale of a few folks who live through a very simplistic Singularity, and how they cope with the new always-networked world populated by artificial intelligences and strange beings from a parallel universe (specifically, another brane different from, but very close to our universe). Some of the ideas are really very interesting, but it's all very deus ex machina, and reads more like a cheap fantasy novel (our heroes go to a magical land to bring back a magical artifact to save the world from a villain who wants to destroy it and remake it to bring back his lost love). Many parts of it were very cartoonish, and it suffered from one of my least favourite tropes, the Amazing Author Whose Creativity Can Change The World.

So overall, I was a bit disappointed. I think I'll start looking at Vinge to get my Singularity hit, and keep hoping Charlie Stross will jump back on that horse....more

I can barely form a coherent reveiew after reading such a waste of ideas. And the truly depresing aspect of the situation is how much potential those ideas had to be explored.

Above all, story and science aside, the characters had no dimension. In character-driven story telling, as this novel attempted to be, this is unacceptable in fiction. The characters were given adult problems and situations to deal with, just pleading for some well written prose and dialogue to fullyThis book is a disaster!

I can barely form a coherent reveiew after reading such a waste of ideas. And the truly depresing aspect of the situation is how much potential those ideas had to be explored.

Above all, story and science aside, the characters had no dimension. In character-driven story telling, as this novel attempted to be, this is unacceptable in fiction. The characters were given adult problems and situations to deal with, just pleading for some well written prose and dialogue to fully flesh them out, and instead Rucker presents us with banal speech and character development that is so sparse it might as well be non-existent. In addition, Rucker's presentation of an autistic child as a pivitol character is insulting! Using austism as a plot devise may be excusable if you actually develop your character. Creating a characature of a mental illness is in incredibly bad taste.

Not only are the characters despicably simple, but the prose is unoriginal, the vocabulary is small, and the plot devices feel forced. And to top it all off the "science" is basically a spin of mainstreem buzzwords like "nano" and "quantum" into a nonsensical story that feels more akin to a poorly written Alice in Wonderland than to well written science fiction. When Rucker tries to tackle bigger themes, such as evil, sex, and addiction, it comes accross as being ripped from a script for teaching elementary school children about the ways of the world. Contradictions abound; I stopped asking why and how very early in the book.

I was disappointed in this book. I've heard a lot of good things about Rudy Rucker and this was the first book of his I chose to read. I enjoy reading and writing about the Singularity, so it's not the topic that bugs me. It's not the tech. It's the cartoonish characters that leave me cold.

Early on the narrative centers on a family: A mom, a dad, and a kid. We live with them for a bit as the world disappears into a cloud of nanobot munchers. Cool. Then the equations are reversed and everything cI was disappointed in this book. I've heard a lot of good things about Rudy Rucker and this was the first book of his I chose to read. I enjoy reading and writing about the Singularity, so it's not the topic that bugs me. It's not the tech. It's the cartoonish characters that leave me cold.

Early on the narrative centers on a family: A mom, a dad, and a kid. We live with them for a bit as the world disappears into a cloud of nanobot munchers. Cool. Then the equations are reversed and everything comes back. Right.

But then we move on to another set of characters and another set of equations and I lose interest in them all.

Lots of cool ideas in the book. You can see the potential in the tech, in the bots, in the hive mind. But there's nothing to grab me beyond the wow factor. Which is fine if you have a short attention span. But we're not in the movies here, we're reading a book.

I'll have to try another Rudy Rucker story before I make a final pronouncement....more

I like Rucker's books a lot but it's been a while since I've read one. Fortunately my brother gave this to me as a gift. I found that it was a really fast read - Rucker is very good at presenting his conceptual material in a rapidly absorbable manner.

I think that there is something for other writers to learn from his plotting - each character actually has two plotlines - the goals of their ego and the goals of their id or libido.

And another element of the book that appealed to me is that it's seI like Rucker's books a lot but it's been a while since I've read one. Fortunately my brother gave this to me as a gift. I found that it was a really fast read - Rucker is very good at presenting his conceptual material in a rapidly absorbable manner.

I think that there is something for other writers to learn from his plotting - each character actually has two plotlines - the goals of their ego and the goals of their id or libido.

And another element of the book that appealed to me is that it's set in a San Francisco not too much different from the present-day one. There is also sort of a meta version of gentrification explored, where rich people can afford to live in a more hi-res and memory-intensive manner than poor people....more

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.After reading a series of non-sci-fi novels, I’ve finally picked up a real SF novel: Postsingular by Rudy Rucker.

The novel was pretty entertaining. I’ve read it on Kindle and smartphone everywhere, whenever I got free time. Rucker has done a good job in making you think about dangers that plausible future technologies may lead to.

Imagine, that we create nanorobots that can self-reproduce. What will stop them from uncontrolled reproduction and “eating” everything they can find and use?

What’s worsAfter reading a series of non-sci-fi novels, I’ve finally picked up a real SF novel: Postsingular by Rudy Rucker.

The novel was pretty entertaining. I’ve read it on Kindle and smartphone everywhere, whenever I got free time. Rucker has done a good job in making you think about dangers that plausible future technologies may lead to.

Imagine, that we create nanorobots that can self-reproduce. What will stop them from uncontrolled reproduction and “eating” everything they can find and use?

What’s worse, imagine that these nanorobots create a network, which becomes a super-intelligent AI. How one can control it? Why would any AI much smarter and powerful than humanity help or at least let people live?

Another point is whether our thoughts are just software that can be run on a different hardware:

Reality is software. What does it matter what system it’s running on?

Will we like better living exclusively in a virtual world? Will we be immortal there or the main program will need more and more resources and decide what processes (human lives) to terminate and what not?

Despite … promises of immortality for everyone, [virtual world] could only support so many virtual agents. …the older and weaker … were being culled out.

Will we like such “odorless”, sterile lives? How people will react to such challenges?

Some answers we can already see around. Many people love to live in a virtual world, where the Internet creates “an extension” to our brains, so we need less to remember and can just look up the necessary information, amount of which is exploding. Social networks create a different culture of communication. There is less and less privacy, thank to our technologies, we know what some of our friends eat, drink, watch and even think. So transition to more and more virtuallity can be very gradual leading to the boiling frog effect.

Moreover, in a natural world deeply merged with a digital counterpart, it will be so much easier to manipulate human behavior (which is so easily done even now):

I can make media remember whatever I want them to remember. Facts are revisable. History is hackable.

… and control people:

…we get lasting, wiretap-style access to each person’s mind.

That’s said, the biggest weak point of the novel is the overly optimistic storyline (and ending). None of the main positive characters have been killed. Good always won evil. Hollywood-style last-minute rescues were most embarrassing. Many of the phenomena were rather “magic”.

The author provides an option to download his version of the book in various formats for free (distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License)....more

As with most of Rudy Rucker's books, there are a lot of great ideas in the this book. I really enjoyed reading about some of the (almost) out-of-this-world ideas he came up with. I would say that the characters are a little...awkward, and there were a lot of main characters who didn't really evoke any emotion from me.

Rudy Rucker obviously has something up his sleeve. Throughout his literary career, he has explored a huge variety of times and places, and his speculative skills are honed to the point that I’m starting to think that they aren’t speculation: Rudy Rucker is a dimensional wanderer, able to explore the possibilities of the past, present and future on a whim.

Submitted for your perusal: POSTSINGULAR, Rucker’s latest novel. Science-fiction enthusiasts will be familiar with the concept of the SingulariRudy Rucker obviously has something up his sleeve. Throughout his literary career, he has explored a huge variety of times and places, and his speculative skills are honed to the point that I’m starting to think that they aren’t speculation: Rudy Rucker is a dimensional wanderer, able to explore the possibilities of the past, present and future on a whim.

Submitted for your perusal: POSTSINGULAR, Rucker’s latest novel. Science-fiction enthusiasts will be familiar with the concept of the Singularity, a technological change so swift and drastic that it makes society completely unrecognizable to those living before it came to pass. This concept is pretty much a double-dog dare to any futurist worth his salt, because the gist of it is that nobody (not even you, Rucker) can imagine such an event. Rucker is one of the very few authors – along with Vernor Vinge and Charles Stross – to shoulder this challenge and completely succeed.

I must confess it: in front of cyberpunk literature I'm virtually helpless. At every nanotech trick, singularity episode and arising metaverse I rejoice as though this were the first SF book I've ever read, or better, as if I wasn't reading at all in the first place. I get deep inside the novel, I let it carry me away, I lose track of time and space.

I must confess it: in front of cyberpunk literature I'm virtually helpless. At every nanotech trick, singularity episode and arising metaverse I rejoice as though this were the first SF book I've ever read, or better, as if I wasn't reading at all in the first place. I get deep inside the novel, I let it carry me away, I lose track of time and space.

So when I found out that Rudy Rucker's latest novel was free to download (http://www.rudyrucker.com/postsingular/), I didn't think twice: I downloaded, printed it and spent the last few days following the events of an earth permeated with nanotech, threatened of being swallowed up by nants, uncontrollable, self-reproducing nanomachines capable of munching through a planet in a matter of days and of transferring human life to a perfect virtual world, so perfect that non-compliant people and political views are banished, or better vanished.

The idea of orphidnet, a postsingular hyperconnected world is not new to cyberpunk, but as the reader participates in the emergence of a metaverse made up of nanomachines colonizing and networking every object in the planet, making any hardware useless and any being visible, she becomes more and more uncomfortable before a concrete world where the notion of individuality blurs, everybody takes part in a total reality show and every thought, every experience, can be recorded and enclosed in a metanovel or stored by anyone else.

The fantasy drift of the parallel world -- the world of angels or elves, in fact a parallel reality with telepathic communication and without any need for machines -- is a bit on the hippy side, but it is well constructed and absolutely justified in the _science_ fiction framework of this novel. As with many other books, one should skip the last few pages, with a trite love-overcomes-everything ending: otherwise I'd still be clapping at this dystopic vision of totalizing nanotechnology that has held my breath until the last page but one.

Post-Singular serves as another proof of Rudy Rucker’s ability to expand the minds of his readers beyond conventional space and time. Built from a short story on nanomachines that appeared independently (a plot heavily dependent on an autistic child and a mathematician who worked with paper and pencil because he didn’t trust computers and calculators), this novel considers possibilities of inter-dimensional reality that might have taken shape after the initial plot was foiled.

Without sharing anyPost-Singular serves as another proof of Rudy Rucker’s ability to expand the minds of his readers beyond conventional space and time. Built from a short story on nanomachines that appeared independently (a plot heavily dependent on an autistic child and a mathematician who worked with paper and pencil because he didn’t trust computers and calculators), this novel considers possibilities of inter-dimensional reality that might have taken shape after the initial plot was foiled.

Without sharing any of the details of the plot, let me merely suggest that Rucker (as far as I know, the first person ever officially designated a “mathonaut”) has a tremendous understanding of the World Wide Web and potential media stemming from it. He understands how commercialism and the anarchic spread of information can function in a symbiotic relationship. Where the “father” of cyberpunk, William Gibson, posited webcasts where the narrowcaster would place webcams on miniature dirigibles and cover live events via remote control, Rucker anticipates organic access (24/7) of all the world’s information, potentially available to everyone.

It isn’t as likely to happen nearly as soon as Gibson’s currently feasible mounting of web cameras on remote control airships since it depends on a theory that turns the entire world into a paracomputer / paraweb environment with ultimate reality shows that out-soap opera the soap operas on today’s television networks and web stars that ebb and flow at meteoric speed compared to the modern world.

Rucker also has conceptions of “smart shoes” with some nanomachine-capacity so that they change shape to reflect wardrobes and have soles that adapt to walking/running/jumping conditions. Such ideas seem almost capricious with today’s technology, but given the potential of future tech, who knows?

Naturally, Rucker is particularly adept at portraying the “addiction” to technology. When a new wrinkle similar to nano-technology is unleashed in the world, some people find themselves as addicted to a hyper-smart intelligent search agent mechanism as some moderns have become addicted to World of Warcraft or Second Life such that they didn’t want to “come down” anymore than a “meth” addict wants to “tweak.” The super search agent AI is known as the “Big Pig” and all of these addicts want to suck at the teat of this “porcine” promulgator of power, propaganda, and potential.

Most of all, Post-Singular does a great job of continuing the grand tradition of interweaving political and corporate America into a marvelous texture of conspiracy, opportunism, and greed. Frankly, the story was a little frightening to me because it rang so true in terms of the way influence works. From saving the world in the initial story (set-up chapter) to the incredibly unexpected conclusion where the world is saved in quite a different way, this is one of the most outstanding novels I’ve read in years. ...more

In Postsingular, tiny machines devour the Earth and copy everybody they eat into a simulation... luckily, one of the machine's developers also created a backdoor, and with the help of his autisitc son, they're able to reverse the situation, restoring everybody.

Soon after, another set of tiny self-replicating machines are released, which don't devour, merely reproduce until they cover every inch of the Earth, sharing information with each other and the people they're on, changing society foreverIn Postsingular, tiny machines devour the Earth and copy everybody they eat into a simulation... luckily, one of the machine's developers also created a backdoor, and with the help of his autisitc son, they're able to reverse the situation, restoring everybody.

Soon after, another set of tiny self-replicating machines are released, which don't devour, merely reproduce until they cover every inch of the Earth, sharing information with each other and the people they're on, changing society forever as everyone can instantly access information about virtually anything.

That's all in the first fifty pages. And after that, the story starts to get REALLY weird.

But that's the point of Singularity fiction, that it's hard to really predict the technologies and social changes that will develop in the wake of one, but it can be a lot of fun trying. And in this case, Rudy Rucker both seems to be having and providing a lot of fun, tossing off nifty ideas and a mostly compelling storyline as humans try to keep control of their own fates or carve out meaning in a rapidly changing world. There's a satirical tone to the whole thing, but it's rather lighter than I would have expected, he takes jabs at politicians and spammers and reality TV, or maybe more at the utopian dreams of SF that believe these won't be dragged along into any new advancement that changes our world, but it never feels like a polemic, more like a he's writing with a grin on his face and a tongue firmly in his cheek, and you never feel like the plot itself is just a vehicle for jokes and thus not worth caring over what happens.

It compares favorably to Accelerando by Charles Stross, which also nicely manages the balance between satire and seriousness, but it's also different... in Accelerando they jump ahead in time at a rapid pace, skipping over a lot of the adjustment period and focusing on where society winds up, whereas in Postsingular they get weird quick and deal more directly with how swiftly the world is changing for the people living in it.

I do have a few complaints... I really liked the plotlines on Earth, but whenever the other dimensional "Hibrane", or it's inhabitants, became involved, I sort of just rolled my eyes and pressed through... I'd have rather that element be left out entirely, but unfortunately it's an important part of the book. Other people might not have a problem with it, it simply didn't fit in with my tastes or anything I wanted out of the book, and instead like a cheap way to introduce some "fun" fantasy elements under a label of SF. Secondly, the book uses a lot of made-up slang and new scientific terms that all sound vaguely childish (or hippie-like, or both). Finally, the characters and their interactions... it's a bit hard to qualify, because I wouldn't say they're flat or lack depth... maybe a little compared to a more serious SF novel, but not excessively so. Yet, I guess I kind of felt like they all had the same... voice, underlying their differences. It felt a little like watching a one-man stage production, where that one man plays every role, and maybe does it well, but in the back of your mind it still feels like it's just one guy pretending to be a whole cast. It probably doesn't help that too many of them are essentially reality show stars in the newly changed world.

Still, I liked the book enough that I'm moving on to the sequel, Hylozoic, even despite my fear that some of the elements I wasn't as keen on are going to be even more of a focus. If he hadn't included the Hibrane subplot, I probably would have given it four stars. As it is, three, but a high three. ...more

This book has fascinating ideas-- a nanotechnology "internet" that encompasses all the senses and pervades the world, a nearby semi-parallel dimension that (Dune-like) has sworn off digital technology... It's also one of the only books that I've read written by a non-Vietnamese author that a) uses the Vietnamese language correctly (he notes the proper pronunciation of Thuy's name, uses the word ban gai with proper Quoc Ngu diacritics), and b) features a Viet-Kieu main character without making anThis book has fascinating ideas-- a nanotechnology "internet" that encompasses all the senses and pervades the world, a nearby semi-parallel dimension that (Dune-like) has sworn off digital technology... It's also one of the only books that I've read written by a non-Vietnamese author that a) uses the Vietnamese language correctly (he notes the proper pronunciation of Thuy's name, uses the word ban gai with proper Quoc Ngu diacritics), and b) features a Viet-Kieu main character without making any reference to the war.

The author, famous in sci-fi circles, but not well-known outside of them, has also embraced copyleft initiatives-- he's made the book available in multiple formats for free download on the book web page.

The style of the book is goofy, and reminds me a bit of Vonnegut (though I get the sense that Vonnegut could write beautifully if he wanted to). But the ideas, even more than the plot, drive this book; style isn't everything. ...more

This book is stuffed to the brim with big ideas. Like Gibson's Neuromancer, it feels as though it's ahead of it's time. Also, like many Gibson novels, there is almost religious obsession with emergent technologies and sub-cultures that revolve/evolve it. Some of the ideas explored in this book include: Quantum Computation/Quantum Entanglement, Encryption, Nanomachines, Teleportation, Collective Intelligences, Intelligent Agents, Parallel Universes, Universal Telepathy, Simulated Virtual Worlds aThis book is stuffed to the brim with big ideas. Like Gibson's Neuromancer, it feels as though it's ahead of it's time. Also, like many Gibson novels, there is almost religious obsession with emergent technologies and sub-cultures that revolve/evolve it. Some of the ideas explored in this book include: Quantum Computation/Quantum Entanglement, Encryption, Nanomachines, Teleportation, Collective Intelligences, Intelligent Agents, Parallel Universes, Universal Telepathy, Simulated Virtual Worlds and a kind of "living google" in the form of a massive A.I. that searches a much more Gibsonesque kind of 'net called the 'Big Pig'.

The plot takes a few twists and turns but is basically centered around saving the Earth (on more than one occasion) from a crazed (yet Brilliant) Silicon Valley Entrepreneur named Jeff Luty. Jeff never quite got over a freakish amateur rocket accident that killed his childhood friend/lover? so he dedicates his life to creating a Virtual Earth (Vearth) in which no one dies or gets sick. Of course doing this means taking away the very things that make humans feel human, although Mr. Luty doesn't seem to mind that too much.

Luty being the hellbent techo-pyscho that he is, it takes a motley crew of unlikely heroes to save the day. Of course they each have their own problems (drug habits, autism, web additions, sex addiction, the inability to finish one's (meta)novel). Can they all overcome their individual problems and find a means to put a stop to Luty's latest plan for human destruction before it's too late?

The ideas in this book are so big that it's worth reading on those merits alone however there were parts of the story that bothered me. There's a somewhat pointless sub-plot about a new net-based reality TV show called 'Founders' that really didn't add much to the story for me and there's a very techo-psychedelic place that exists in a hyperdimensional 'border zone' that features weird plant or birdlike creatures that try to suck you into a hyperspatial void. (wtf?) Some time around this point, the weird-to-futuristic ratio got a little too top-heavy for me. Last but not least, one of the main protagonists in the story must finish her 'metanovel' (an interactive, web-based super narrative that becomes the new media of the futuristic web) in order to unlock the secret to breaking an encryption code that will allow her and other protagonists to 'jump' thru a hyper-dimensional portal and steal a musical instrument that is capable of creating some kind of quantum entanglement that will both save the world and allow things like ubiquitous teleportation, universal telepathy and unlimited memory.

If all this sounds like a wild and crazy ride, it's because it is - But it's also a pretty fun read and although not without it's flaws, a definite break from the ordinary in this genre....more

This book is a trippy, zippy neo-science fiction. Something that combines the campiness of old with the technology of new. I don't really like that sort of thing. It's like what Cory Doctorow writes and what "Snow Crash" evolved into. I don't like my science-fiction in my fantasy, especially when you start as one and migrate to the other.

The story is about a possible "singularity" (look it up). In this case, the singularity is all of us becoming computers, or basically the world becomes an InteThis book is a trippy, zippy neo-science fiction. Something that combines the campiness of old with the technology of new. I don't really like that sort of thing. It's like what Cory Doctorow writes and what "Snow Crash" evolved into. I don't like my science-fiction in my fantasy, especially when you start as one and migrate to the other.

The story is about a possible "singularity" (look it up). In this case, the singularity is all of us becoming computers, or basically the world becomes an Internet somehow. I don't really get it. It's half technobabble and half stifled dialogue. Meanwhile, an autistic boy finds a parallel reality that doesn't much like us by using the World Internet. This reality is populated by slow giants who like cuttlefish.

I don't get it. There's parts of it that seem researched enough to be a Crichton novel, and then junk like alternate reality giants with Japanese gardens. Then you bring in some fresh-faced teens, an autistic boy, and a big benevolent AI who wants to take over. Everything just seems mish-mashed with hip cyberpunk terms and illogical human behavior. But the most important thing is that the characters are no one you want to care about.

The characters seem blocky, and more concerned about everything else besides their own relationships. This is my big problem with a lot of science fiction, and why I don't read the generic stuff. The authors know technology, but not people. He uses addicts and affairs as a side story, when that's a profound trait that needs to be explored. And when I say side story I mean it's practically forced in there, as if there needed to be something to keep the women readers occupied. People have sex at the drop of a hat, have affair after affair with the affected looking the other way, and no thought for their children, who wander out of the house and get high on A.I. Everyone acts like a kid, especially the adults.

I don't know whether he's trying to be Neal Stephenson or Phllip K. Dick, but I can't think of any reason to read this book. The story is just cyberjunk with wooden characters and pithy motivations. Maybe that's the nature of the beast when we all turn into computers....more

Try as I might, I just can't get into this style of sci-fi...I'm not even sure what identifies this "style," but it seems to involve a wacky, bohemian view of the future ("gonzo" is the term I see mentioned a bit)...admittedly, a weird thing to dislike, but...yeah.

Postsingular gives up the ghost in the first few pages: the singularity happens and from then on "crazy stuff" is the norm. Everything can be answered via the omnipresent web of "orphids," nothing is unknowable, and the main charactersTry as I might, I just can't get into this style of sci-fi...I'm not even sure what identifies this "style," but it seems to involve a wacky, bohemian view of the future ("gonzo" is the term I see mentioned a bit)...admittedly, a weird thing to dislike, but...yeah.

Postsingular gives up the ghost in the first few pages: the singularity happens and from then on "crazy stuff" is the norm. Everything can be answered via the omnipresent web of "orphids," nothing is unknowable, and the main characters can teleport hither-and-yon with impunity...this "accepted" power makes for some pretty shallow plot and tension: mysteries are solved without a second thought in a heartbeat, and seemingly big scary bad guys are dispatched off-handedly a few paragraphs after they are introduced. Everything is infused with lack of excitement. The characters are flat...or, if not flat, paper-thin...and certainly not very likeable. Their social dynamics play out as blandly as the action...and the most unlikable aspect of all this is the sweaty, comic-book-guy like take on sexual norms of this post-singular age: lots of busty vixen-on-vixen flings (why not guy-on-guy?) that embarrassingly read like a stereotypical nerd fantasy.

Sigh. There is good stuff in here (cool tech concepts, an insanely well-thought-out future), but still, I was disappointed. ...more

Set immediately before, during and after the singularity, this is a strange book, which gets progressively more fantastical as it goes on. The first part reminded my of Neuromancer, part two veered into something more like Jeff Noon's Pollen, and the last two parts got as flat-out silly as John Dies at the End. At one point, this was looking like a solid 4 stars, but it slipped towards 2 by the end. Fun and interesting, but with clunky dialogue and the plot ultimately got too silly for my tastesSet immediately before, during and after the singularity, this is a strange book, which gets progressively more fantastical as it goes on. The first part reminded my of Neuromancer, part two veered into something more like Jeff Noon's Pollen, and the last two parts got as flat-out silly as John Dies at the End. At one point, this was looking like a solid 4 stars, but it slipped towards 2 by the end. Fun and interesting, but with clunky dialogue and the plot ultimately got too silly for my tastes. ...more

Imagine a world where the Internet never cut out. No, I don't just mean a world where Comcast customer service doesn't blow, I mean a world where you literally could not turn the web off if you wanted too. Now imagine the computational power of that interweb is so great you can immerse yourself in any virtual experience you want, and it will seem just as real as our world. A world in which you have instantaneous access to all human knowledge and Your Brain May One Day be Infested with Nanobots

Imagine a world where the Internet never cut out. No, I don't just mean a world where Comcast customer service doesn't blow, I mean a world where you literally could not turn the web off if you wanted too. Now imagine the computational power of that interweb is so great you can immerse yourself in any virtual experience you want, and it will seem just as real as our world. A world in which you have instantaneous access to all human knowledge and experience. There's just one catch. In order for it to work, you've gotta be okay billions of microscopic robots crawling over the surface of your brain.

I really enjoyed this book, which was my introduction to Rudy Rucker. This is the author's take on what might follow humanity's achievement of the "singularity". The singularity is an idea proposed by Ray Kurzweil and others that, within less than 50 years, humans and technology will combine to create something new, something like humans with greatly expanded mental and physical abilities. Sounds kooky and sci-fi, but like so much good sci-fi, the more you read, the more you see how very plausibI really enjoyed this book, which was my introduction to Rudy Rucker. This is the author's take on what might follow humanity's achievement of the "singularity". The singularity is an idea proposed by Ray Kurzweil and others that, within less than 50 years, humans and technology will combine to create something new, something like humans with greatly expanded mental and physical abilities. Sounds kooky and sci-fi, but like so much good sci-fi, the more you read, the more you see how very plausible it is. Which is why I like good sci-fi: it expands the mind, adds to what you see as possible, maps new trajectories for human history. Rucker's take on the singularity is somewhat whimsical, somewhat disturbing, and full of well-created and compelling and very human characters. After reading this book, I think every reader of sci-fi should know Rudy Rucker....more

If you look past the giant angels from a parallel dimension, the transhuman genius, the panthiestic artificial intelligence and the battle between competing "singularity" (AKA The Rapture of The Nerds) hardware, what you've basically got here is a (cautionary?) tale about internet addiction and facebook melodrama. Quirky. Amusing. Typical Rudy Rucker.

Oh, and it's a probably a good idea to have a dictionary on hand for the dialogue between characters getting wasted on vicarious super-intelligenceIf you look past the giant angels from a parallel dimension, the transhuman genius, the panthiestic artificial intelligence and the battle between competing "singularity" (AKA The Rapture of The Nerds) hardware, what you've basically got here is a (cautionary?) tale about internet addiction and facebook melodrama. Quirky. Amusing. Typical Rudy Rucker.

Oh, and it's a probably a good idea to have a dictionary on hand for the dialogue between characters getting wasted on vicarious super-intelligence. Not that you'll need it to understand anything important, but you might learn a few new words and concepts. In fact if you google them, it's essentially audience participation and performance art....more

Rudolf von Bitter Rucker is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk genre. He is best known for his Ware Tetralogy, the first two of which won Philip K. Dick awards. Presently, Rudy Rucker edits the science fiction webzine Flurb.